The Scottish statement comes in the wake of some discussion over how compliance schemes will meet their obligations. While the Environment Agency has confirmed that, subject to verification, schemes in England and Wales have met their obligations, the Agency's Scottish counterpart is still to confirm details. Among the three schemes registered in Scotland is Wastepack, the second largest scheme in the UK.
A meeting of the compliance schemes group COSWIG in London yesterday (March14) was given a detailed statement from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency about its current position. This said that SEPA is assessing “the evidence of compliance that has been received by registered producers and compliance schemes. At this time SEPA is unable to comment on whether all producers and schemes have complied solely through conformance with the statutory guidance on evidence of compliance.”
The statement said that SEPA was aware that there is “some uncertainty in the compliance market about whether other means by which to achieve compliance will be acceptable.”
The Scottish Agency emphasised that it has not agreed with any producer or scheme that steps other than that laid down in the statutory guidance can be used to achieve full compliance. “At this stage SEPA is firmly of the opinion that the statutory system is the only means of compliance, unless there are exceptional circumstances which mean that this system is unavailable.”
Statutory
As to what “the statutory system” means is open to some discussion, it would appear. Compliance experts told letsrecycle.com that in the first instance they considered the statutory system meant “the use of PRNs or their equivalent.” However, another view was that the regulations do allow for “reasonable steps to be taken” which could mean alternative evidence of compliance”.
The wait for SEPA's adjudication is just one element of uncertainty which is still influencing the PRN market. Another major factor is continuing uncertainty over the targets with the government still failing to say what the targets are for 2002. And, there is now strong talk that the UK may have missed targets for 2001 on the first reading of the figures and that the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is actively assessing ways of ensuring that it can make sure the UK does comply. While it has submitted total packaging data to the EU of about 9.3m tonnes it is thought that there could be ways to amend the 50% figure which the UK has to meet. One packaging expert said this could involve finding new sources of evidence which have not been counted in as well as “playing with the data” in other ways. Particular attention is being paid to paper and wood data.
The uncertainty over PRNs for 2002 seems certain to stop some purchases being made in the first quarter of this year. While some compliance schemes are in the market for material, several are awaiting the SEPA ruling and news of the government's targets. Overall there is a belief that the PRN market will continue although questions are being asked as to how prices will fare this year, with a general consensus that prices will rise, although not double.
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